


Band-Aid

by MeansToOffend (goodmorning)



Series: Pick Me Up [11]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: 2017-2018 NHL Season, New York Rangers, Other, Pick-Up Lines, Self-Doubt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-04-14 02:57:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14126598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodmorning/pseuds/MeansToOffend
Summary: "Kevin knows that plenty of people do the roommate thing, that just because people live together doesn’t mean they’reliving together. So he hadn’t made assumptions about Jimmy and Brady when they’d first moved in. Now, though, he’s kind of making a lot of them."





	Band-Aid

Kevin knows that plenty of people do the roommate thing, that just because people live together doesn’t mean they’re _living together_. So he hadn’t made assumptions about Jimmy and Brady when they’d first moved in. Now, though, he’s kind of making a lot of them.

Partly, this is because of the time Jimmy came to practice in a Golden Gophers shirt and claimed he _hadn’t_ lost a bet. Partly, it’s because of the _five _times Brady’s shown up in different Harvard shirts, all straining slightly over his shoulders. Mostly, though, it’s just the easy way they move around each other, anticipating one another’s needs and meeting them wordlessly. It almost makes Kevin wonder what they’d be like on the ice, if they played the same position.__

____

____

Kevin would like to pretend to himself that the reason he doesn’t invite himself to their place as often as he used to is wanting to give them their privacy, so they can do date nights and couple shit without an awkward third wheel around. He can’t pretend, though, because he knows the reality is that he just doesn’t want to see them doing couple shit; he’s jealous.

The worst part is that he’s not even sure which one of them he’s more jealous of.

Still, Kevin can’t bring himself to turn down very many of their invitations, even if he doesn’t actively solicit them anymore. So he’s still a regular visitor to their apartment, still has a front-row seat to all their numerous flirtations; the way they chirp at each other, casual and sweet; the way Jimmy knocks his knee against Brady and grins to bring him out of being annoyed; the way Brady gives up pouting so easily to smile back.

Kevin never feels like he’s intruding, like any of their movements are meant to be private from him, but maybe that’s just an indication that his feelings for them have already gone too far, that he’s played with fire for so long he’s already been burned. Maybe he shouldn’t do this to himself, should leave them to themselves and stop with the tormenting wish that it could all be just that little bit different.

But he cracks a joke, watches beautiful, surprised laughter spread across their faces, and knows that, for him, there’s no chance to stop. He’s in way too deep now for there to ever be an easy out.

\--

Jimmy knows he’s not exactly a looker. Oh, he’s in better shape than most of the population, sure, but compared to his teammates he’s average on a good day, and his face is nothing to write home about. Obviously anyone who tries to compare himself to Hank is in for a sharp drop in self-esteem, but Kevin is pretty damn attractive and Brady is fucking hot, and Jimmy feels like a troll when they all hang out. Sometimes he doesn’t know why he keeps inviting Kevin over - but Kevin tells the best jokes, makes them all laugh; Brady jumps in to make fun of their accents, he and Kevin chirp back, and it reminds him. 

Besides, the two of them together make a pretty picture, tongues sharp in argument over football or heads bent together in conference on the ice, and he likes being able to see it so often.

Maybe it’s because he likes looking at them that he’s the first - only? - one to see them looking at each other, not as teammates and friends, but with that spark of interest that Jimmy has in both of them. He tells himself that it’s possible they won’t notice, that they don’t mean anything by it, that it’s just the vague kind of lust that happens sometimes between attractive people. But, of course, they’re already close, and still getting closer, and maybe Jimmy really should stop inviting Kevin over.

But he can’t. Not only does he need someone to watch Pats games with, to convince him signing here and not at home was the right idea, but Kevin brings Brady out of his shell, out of their quiet and comfortable roommate routines, and Jimmy loves seeing Brady that way, seeing Kevin prod him into it.

He’s pretty sure this is what matters in life, holding on to the people you care about, spending as much time as you can with them, because even if they don’t know they’re breaking your heart, they’re mending it too.

But, then, it’s also true that he doesn’t feel particularly hurt by everything that seems to pass unspoken between them. It’s possible that this will end in tears and regret, in the two of them together and Jimmy alone, clinging to whatever scraps of friendly affection he can get, but right now Kevin is throwing popcorn at Brady’s face and Jimmy can’t imagine this ever ending.

\--

Brady knows there’s not much difference between Minnesota and Boston. In theory, anyway. People live there, go to work, spend time with their families, play hockey. There’s plenty of access to waterways, and football to watch, and snow on the ground come wintertime. But despite all the similarities, the differences between them sometimes feel like a chasm, when Jimmy and Kevin get going. Their accents get a lot stronger when they’re talking to each other, stronger even than when they talk to Cares and Kreids.

It makes him a little jealous, makes him chime in over their laughter and his own slightly breathless chuckles every time. “God, you two are such Massholes. What did you do with your rs, sit on them?”

“Oh, you betcha,” Kevin replies, butchering the hell out of Brady’s Minnesota. “Don’t cha know,” he continues, and the rest of what he was apparently going to say is lost in their laughter.

It also makes him jealous when they talk about their shared experiences, but Brady never feels completely left out. After all, he’s heard most of the stories now, knows about Jimmy’s misfortunes in the Beanpot every year, about Kevin’s Boston College beating Jimmy’s Harvard, about the two of them meeting in the handshake line, two Bostonians in a sea of Bostonians, distinguished by their talent, without a clue that Jimmy would be anywhere but Nashville in three-point-five years’ time. At this point, Brady can almost picture it like he was there.

Besides, it’s not like he didn’t have his own tournament near-miss with Kevin, when he’d made it all the way to the Frozen Four final believing in worldbeaters, not realizing his own squad weren’t. Of course, he’d still gotten farther that year than Kevin had, farther than Jimmy ever did, and it makes a welcome change of pace to say so, even if he does try to save it for special occasions.

Brady makes sure, when he says it, to have a good view of them both, to watch Jimmy slowly redden in speechless outrage, to see Kevin collapse in his full-body laugh. He’s never quite sure which reaction is his favorite. And, really, that should tell Brady everything he needs to know about his own mind.

He wants them both, whether he can have them or not, and his only problem with that is that it proves just how terrible his taste is.

\--

The team splinters and falls apart, and some days it seems to Kevin like the only constants in the room are Zucc, who’s conspicuously distancing himself from everyone in the lead-up to the trade deadline, and Hank, who’s holding the pieces together with his teeth, anger fuelling his glove. There’s nothing Kevin can do to help Zucc at all, though he wishes he could. There’s not much Kevin can do to help Hank, either, but stay out of the way, and this is what he tries his best to do, most of the time.

So things at the rink aren’t great, but off-ice there is one thing that keeps him from going completely off the rails: Brady’s and Jimmy’s apartment.

Inside, it seems like nothing’s changed, the same jokes and chirps, the same easy companionship they’ve always had. It keeps him grounded, keeps him from worrying too much about all the things he can’t do anything about right now. Even if he’s not _worried_ , though, it’s still on his mind: anyone could go right now, anyone at all, and he wonders if he’ll be as bad as Zucc, if it’s someone he cares about. He’s beginning to have a much better appreciation of what Zucc has gone through, over the years. If Kevin’s honest with himself, he’d probably be an absolute wreck every deadline day, just waiting for another friend to walk out the door for good.

All this, the negative thoughts and the sadness for the guys they’ve lost and will lose as well as those they haven’t, is a shame, because Jimmy is stretched out on the couch, feet in Brady’s lap and mouth open, and Kevin’s distracted thinking has caused him to miss Jimmy’s face entirely with the last piece of popcorn. Jimmy pouts at him, and Brady snorts at them both over the top of the book he’s obviously only pretending to read, and Kevin’s heart kicks painfully in his chest.

Later, he’ll blame them for this fit of introspection, distractedly pouting back at Jimmy while wondering things like: _What if I get traded, too? Will I have any regrets? What kinds of things would I say if I knew I’d be gone? Would Brady and Jimmy miss me if I wasn’t here?_ The thoughts pass through his mind in the blink of an eye, and it’s entirely due to the answers - that he wants to tell them, needs to tell them, would regret forever if he didn’t tell them, that the cozy feeling of the three of them sitting quietly together in the living room means they would miss him more than he can guess - that he gets up, makes his way to where all the evening’s fallen popcorn has collected, and manages to stub his toe on the coffee table.

He falls over, more to make them laugh than because he’s actually that clumsy, but then he’s on the floor and it’s kind of surprising despite that it was purposeful. He lays there on the carpet for a minute, mind blessedly blank and free of worry, before he thinks to prop himself up and look at them. They look back at him, amusement and concern clear on both of their faces, Jimmy halfway to sitting and Brady having put the book down, and Kevin suddenly doesn’t see any reason at all to stop himself from asking, “Do you have a band-aid?”

“No, I used them all up after you kicked me in the chin,” Brady says. “We never bought new ones, you know how we are.”

“You fell on carpet,” Jimmy points out. “Are you even bleeding? Why do you need one?”

“Because,” says Kevin, and he’s this close to rethinking this decision, because _What if I don’t get traded? What if they take it badly? What if they never want to see me again? What if they wouldn’t miss me at all?_ But he shoves the doubts away, unable to leave this unsaid. “I think I hurt my knee falling for you.”

“Uhhhh…” says Jimmy.

“I’ll just leave you two alone, then,” Brady puts in.

“No, I think that’s my line,” Jimmy says, and they both stand, looking at each other and at Kevin in confusion.

Kevin would like to be confused, too, but it’s a little late for him to be asking about their relationship now. “No!” he says instead, lunging for them. He takes Brady’s left hand in his right, Jimmy’s right in his left, and he’s still on his knees in front of them, thoughts swirling through his mind at a mile a minute, no words reaching his mouth. “Falling for both of you,” he says, finally.

“Yeah?” Brady asks, looking at Jimmy.

“Holy fucking shit,” says Jimmy, and together the two of them haul Kevin up into their arms.

**Author's Note:**

> \- The inspiration for this was that apartment video and the Hayes-Skjei chin slice that we all know so well by now.  
> \- As those of you who have read my stand-alone fics probably know, I am far too obsessed with rotating POVs.  
> \- (They talk about things like 'but how did you know I'd be into him too' and Kevin mentions the shirt thing. At a practice the next week both Brady and Jimmy are wearing BC shirts which are slightly too large and Kevin accidentally runs into the glass trying to figure out when they stole them. He then buys Harvard/Minnesota shirts for himself because he doesn't fit in theirs.)  
> \- Actually, as a further exercise in word count foolishness, each of the first 3 sections is 400 words exactly and the last one is 800.


End file.
